The present invention relates to portable discharge hose storage reel systems, and more particularly to methods and apparatus for supporting a discharge hose storage reel and mounting it to a vehicular support platform.
Vehicularly mounted discharge hoses, stored on hose reels, are used extensively with sewer cleaning vehicles utilizing water streams for cleaning sewer laterals. Such sewer cleaning vehicles generally include a large capacity water reservoir and a water pump supplied by the reservoir for developing a flow of water through a discharge hose which feeds a water nozzle. The water nozzle often has outlets which eject sprayed water generally rearward toward the connecting discharge hose, so that the water spray propels the nozzle through any passageway in which it is inserted, typically sewer laterals connecting catch basins in a sewer system.
The discharge hose unwinds from a discharge hose storage reel as the water nozzle propels itself through a sewer pipe lateral passageway. These hose reels are large and heavy, because as much as 1,000 feet of 1 inch diameter flexible hose may be required for extended sewer laterals. Because of its size and weight, such a hose reel is generally mounted across the nose or tail of its associated vehicle, so that the hose dispenses from either the left or right side of the vehicle along its nose or tail. U.S. Pat. No. 3,658,589, assigned to the assignee of the present invention, depicts one such hose reel mounted across the nose of the vehicle. One U.S. company, Aquatech, provides, under the designation Model SJ-1500, a hose reel mounted at the tail of the vehicle. In some other instances, with the hose reel mounted on the tail of the vehicle in an arrangement having the axis of rotation of the reel lying perpendicular to the center line of the vehicle, the hose may be dispensed from the forward or rearward portion of the reel. Alternatively, the hose reel can be placed amidship within the vehicle, and according to one arrangement, the reel slides toward the left or right side of the vehicle for the dispensal and retrieval of hose. Such an arrangement is sold in the U.S. by Leach under the registered trademark VAC-ALL. Another arrangement with amidship mounting transports the discharge hose to the front of a vehicle with a boom, much like a fishing pole transports fish line. This arrangement is sold in the United States by IPM, Inc., under the model designation SCAVENGER.
Other arrangements have included a nose or tail mounted hose storage reel which swings about one side of its mounting to allow the reel to extend away from the vehicle. The swiveling arrangement allows the reel to dispense and retrieve hose over a wider degree of vehicle position, because the reel position can be adjusted to compensate for a certain amount of variation of vehicle position. For example, an arrangement where the hose storage reel mounted to the tail of a vehicle is found on the vehicles manufactured by Aquatech and sold under the designation B5, B10, and B15. Myers-Sherman Company, predecessor to the assignee of the present invention, manufactured in about 1968 a comparable arrangement in which a nose mounted hose storage reel could swing about one side of its mounting to allow the reel to extend away from the vehicle. Still another arrangement allows the hose reel to swing downward along one side of its mount to allow cab or hood raising clearance for vehicle maintenance.
The hose reel mounting arrangements described above all provide limited, if any, degree of alignment for hose dispensal to and retrieval from a catch basin or a manhole associated with catch basins, sewer laterals, or sewer lines. Furthermore, most of these arrangements limit hose dispensal and retrieval to one selected side of the vehicle, typically the right side. Those arrangements which allow the hose reel to swing outward for alignment may extend beyond the vehicle, and may thereby create clearance problems and possible road hazards. Furthermore, such swinging hose reel mounts can be unstable, and may require jacks or other support arrangements along their extended sides for suitable stability.